Tearful students, parents and sympathisers are braving the biting cold of a Delhi winter night seeking justice against oppression by the Delhi Police.  Aligarh Muslim University, Banaras Hindu University and Dar-ul-Uloom in Lucknow, Mumbai University, Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai and Jadavpur University students in Kolkatta have protested in solidarity with students of Jamia Milia.

MUSLIM RESIDENTS AND STUDENT SUPPORTERS FROM ACROSS DELHI and around are reaching the Delhi police headquarters with warm clothes announcing that they would stay on till justice is done. Down with Delhi Police are renting the air and television screens in the country are screaming the cries for justice but there has been no official response so far.

In the middle of the night, lawyers and parents are running from one police station to another urging the police to provide water, food and medical attention to students who were forcibly detained from within the library and washrooms of the Jamia Milia University. Protesting students are seeking the protection of CCTV footage of the police storming into the Jamia Milia University.

As reported by social activist Harsh Mander and lawyer Choudhary Ali Zia Kabir, who were allowed into the police station only after sustained persuasion, without their mobile phones, they were not allowed to take signatures on any document including Vakalatnamas by the police.

Advocate Kabir has pointed out that they could count 28 students in Kalkaji police station, including Chandan Singh son of  Lakshmikant Singh who was a heart ailment and who stated that he was picked up from the library where he was studying.  The ailing student requested that CCTV camera footage of the library and the campus must be seized to clearly show the storming of the police by CRPF and other police personnel.

Many of these students, who are at the Jamia police station are seriously injured and may be taken to AIIMS for a medical check-up. The police have not so far given the names or number of the students detained at various police stations.

While talking to the activists, Chandan fell from his chair and only after sustained request of the intervenors, he was taken to the hospital by the police.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Minorities Commission has intervened and has asked the Delhi Police to immediately release the students from police stations and provide medical aid to students.

The incarcerated students pointed out that the detained students were not protesting on the roads outside the campus. They repeatedly impressed upon the activists that the entire CCTV footage of the whole campus including library must be seized as evidence of their innocence.

Students alleged that the female students were beaten up and even sexually harassed by the male police officers. Even when the female students locked themselves into female washrooms, the police broke open the doors and assaulted them.  Not only this, the paramilitary police switched off the lights before assaulting the girl students so that evidence could not be recorded on CCTV cameras.

Shame on the powers that be!